If you won the lottery....

[Otto]

Would you start an IRL team or a race team in another series, perhaps the IPS? If so, how would you go about it? What team manager would you hire or run it yourself? One car, two cars? Which drivers? Just curious, I was daydreaming driving home today and the thought crossed my mind.

[B1]

Originally posted by Otto:
<STRONG>Would you start an IRL team or a race team in another series, perhaps the IPS? If so, how would you go about it? What team manager would you hire or run it yourself? One car, two cars? Which drivers? Just curious, I was daydreaming driving home today and the thought crossed my mind.</STRONG>

Did you win?

[grogg]

If I won a big enough lottery I would buy myself into being the majority owner of Panther Racing. Case closed.

[Spencer Mac]

There would be a Spencer Mac Pagoda!

[Truth Detector]

Depends on how big the lottery was.

Tim Bumps to manage.

Jimmy Kite to drive.

Tracy Hines for my IPS program.

Power Ball as a sponsor.

And I'd bring back the Hawaiian Tropic girls.

[Otto]

OF course I did! Actually I never decided who I wanted as a driver. I got bogged down in how to interview them and what questions to ask.

[Tim_racefan]

I'd take 3/4 of my take home to the desk of Tony Stewart, and ask him if he'd like to open shop for a 2 car top notch IRL effort.

[Mackie]

I would go back to my roots, the NASCAR Modified series. If I were to choose the IRL though, I would have an established team run my program, one with Speedway Chevys or the Infiniti, and Dallara chassis! There are few top flight teams in the IRL that do that sort of stuff, I thing Panther would, they worked with TKG last year. I know Hemelgarn does! My first choice, Foyt, has the right chassis buy the wrong engines, besides he hasn't run anyone's program that I can remember! There are operations that live by running peoples deals, Cunningham lately, as well as Beck and McCormack, results from them haven't been good.

[Otto]

Let's say 50 mil. That would run out eventually I suppose. And you still need cash to live on. I was thinking on starting in the feeder series to get my feet wet and learn the business, Hire a very good team manager and learn from them. Spend alot of time searching out young talented drivers, but probably get an established quality one.

[Lucky161]

Somebody won ours on Saturday, so it's only 4 million for tomorrow night. Taking 50% for cash value, that would leave 2 million. I have an agreement to split with my brother, so I would only have 1 million before taxes. I would buy a house, a new pickup and use about $40K to invest in a business that would at least support me and hopefully grow it into enough to support a fulltime IRL team. The rest I would invest in annuities just in case the business went belly up.

[BSJracing]

I'd call Dallara

I'd call Infiniti

I'd call Gidley

[GlennH]

Unless it was an obscene amount, I'd probably start out as a minority owner with someone established that was looking for some assistance and learn the ropes. Of course, I'd seek step33's opinion on how to approach it and possibly hire him to run the team if I were able to go it alone.

[Jimbo7]

Definitely would buy a one car IRL team. I would hire Tom Sneva or Arie Luyendyk to manage my whole team. I would hire Arie Luyendyk's son to race for my team. I would do a one-off for the Indy 500, however.

[ March 12, 2002: Message edited by: Jimbo7 ]

[Weasel Boy]

Originally posted by Otto:
<STRONG>I was daydreaming driving home today and the thought crossed my mind.</STRONG>

Funny you should mention it.

I just won $3 million in the West Virginia
lottery. I get three dollars a year for a
million years.

[tedt]

I've been daydreaming about this too lately, funny enough. A guy has to have a fantasy, and since I already have the beautiful wife and we're working on the kids part, ...

If I went with the IRL, I feel that I'd probably just end up being a stooge hanging around the pit box while somebody else ran the show, Greg Beck or Larry Nash or some other person who knows how to put a team together. My greatest contribution in this case would likely be to give the "celebrity" interview a la Joe Montana or David Leterman. I figure I'd be "the guy that won the lottery" story.

That said, I'd definitely start a new IPS team, with a view to moving up to the IRL after 3-5 successful years, and IRL involvement initially as a 500 one-off and some selected races.

I'd buy in my brother as a near equity partner to be my technical advisor in-training. He's a genius, very hands-on gearhead race fan Purdue-educated mechanical (now corporate) engineer who like me at this point knows essentially nothing about running a race team. But Rob would always be way ahead of me on the tech learning curve.

Then I would try to assemble, through contacts initally made at this forum, a team of people who would earn a very competative salary and benefit package, and limited equity based in part on performance. These folks would be subjected to a rigorous hiring process to comfirm they were committed to the goal of putting together a successful long-term stable team. Everybody's boat rises with the team's rising tide.

As far a drivers, I think I would initially hire a driver with IRL experience and a name, somebody maybe like Steve Knapp, Ritchie Hearn, Robby Unser or Jimmy Kite. It would be good for them just to be at the track and racing, I think. Maybe they could work it into an IRL ride. It would largely remove the driver learning curve issue for me. I think also it would be good for the IPS to have some vets involved, like BGN. Later I would hire a proven USAC winner for a second car.

Ah, if only ...

[ March 13, 2002: Message edited by: tedt ]